Your Relationship Marketing Strategy

Relationship marketing strategies are at the core of a great plan.

A survey conducted by Accenture Wealth and Asset Management Services research revealed that while 63% of advisors feel they have a personal relationship with their clients, only 38% of clients feel they have a personal relationship with their advisor.

Ask 100 affluent clients how they want to be approached and most will share that their preferred introduction is via a personal referral from someone they trust. Ask 100 advisors how they prospect for affluent clients and you will hear almost every strategy except through a personal referral.

Notice a trend?

In order to fulfill your clients’ expectations, it is imperative that we clearly understand your clients’ expectations. For example, there are many ways to stay in touch with your clients. The best strategy to determine the ideal relationship marketing strategy is to simply ask your clients what they prefer. Do they want to receive information via email or mail? Do they enjoy social events? If so, what types? Do they want to meet quarterly, semi-annually, or yearly? By taking time to understand and establish clear expectations at the beginning of the relationship, you will dramatically improve your clients’ experience, and you will have clients for life.

Today, we dive into some ideas you can use in your Relationship Marketing Strategy.

1. One-on-One Meetings and Client Events

In person meetings allow you to connect at a deeper level with your clients. This setting provides your client an ability to ask questions and share information with you. Social gatherings create a sense of community which can also solidify your relationship. Client events are an excellent opportunity to meet your clients friends and family in a favorable environment.

2. Telephone Meetings

Sometimes, clients are too busy or live out of state forcing you to talk with them via the telephone. Telephone meetings can be quick and cover a wide range of topics for busy clients. Begin the call by asking how they are and listening. Put their agenda first. Always conclude your call with, “Is there anything else?”

3. Blogs and Newsletters

Blogs are an important way of attracting new clients and keeping current clients up-to-date on the latest news. With an ever changing political and economic landscape, blogs need to be updated regularly. A monthly newsletter – either physical or electronic – with a brief synopsis of the posts from the month is an effective way to encourage your clients to read and share your posts.

4. Social Media (Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook)

Your social media presence can set you apart and allow your clients greater and easier access to you and you to them. Linked-In, Facebook, and Twitter provide direct communication in short bursts. The best part is that it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes a day to update your social media accounts.

5. Email Blasts

Sometimes important events happen that have a dramatic impact on your clients’ portfolios. Sending out an email to all of your clients is a fast and effective way to convey valuable information quickly. Email blasts are also a great way to stay in touch in between your blog posts and newsletter updates.

Technology has made it possible to have a face to face and/or group meeting regardless of where a person is located. Skype, Facebook Live, Zoom, Join.Me, GoToMeeting, and WebEx are simple ways to conduct online meetings and webinars.

7. Connections: Relationship Touches

In this technology driven world, people are starved for affection and attention! That is why a relationship marketing strategy is such a critical part of your marketing plan. A simple personal card or note is powerful and often underrated. Online and offline technology allows you to automate this process for events such as birthdays, anniversaries, client event notices, nice to meet you, Valentine’s day as well as other important event. This frees you up to make the personal telephone calls (that are best made by you) to your clients.

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Comments

I would like to learn more about how people actually update their status on LinkedIn and Facebook. What do they say? How do they use those social media sites to engage clients and prospects? I post client approved posts that come through Heresay, but that has not really made much of an impact other than perhaps turn people off from reading the posts. How can I get people more engaged through these sites?